Paul Koning is a professional liability litigator and advisor. For more than 35 years, Paul has represented top law firms and lawyers in high-stakes lawsuits and sensitive investigations regarding claims of professional misconduct, legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty. Paul also regularly defends lawyers against grievance complaints, appears as special counsel for lawyers facing motions for disqualification or sanctions, helps lawyers resolve intra-firm controversies, and handles client fee disputes.
While many firms and lawyers initially hire Paul based on his proficiency in the courtroom, they quickly discover his ability to serve as their on-call legal ethics and loss prevention advisor. Paul’s deep experience in the “law of lawyering” enables him to devise immediate and practical solutions to the most challenging ethical dilemmas. He counsels national and small firms daily on issues such as conflicts of interest, the rights and duties of lawyers changing firms, client trust funds and files, lawyer advertising, litigation financing, plus many more.
Paul is regarded among peers as one of the region’s most accomplished and knowledgeable authorities on legal malpractice and professional responsibility issues, including recognition by Texas Lawyer magazine in 2007 as one of the top five legal malpractice lawyers in Texas based on an eight-month survey of Texas attorneys. He is also a frequent speaker, author and teacher on professional liability and legal ethics. Among his other achievements, Paul wrote the Texas section of The Law of Lawyers’ Liability, a highly regarded national resource first published in 2012, and is a member of the Legal Ethics Editorial Advisory Board of the national legal news service Law360 (Portfolio Media, Inc.).
Paul has dedicated substantial time and effort to the enhancement of professional responsibility and best practices for lawyers in Texas. In 2021 the Supreme Court of Texas designated him as Chair of the Texas Professional Ethics Committee – the nine-member body charged with drafting legal ethics opinions for lawyers. In addition to serving as a member of the Texas Professional Ethics Committee since 2014, Paul also served as co-chair of the American Bar Association Professional Liability Litigation Committee, was the designer and project coordinator of the American Bar Association’s 50 State Survey of Legal Malpractice Law and was a panel chair on the State Bar of Texas Grievance Committee (District 6).
In addition to his professional liability practice, for many years Paul has represented businesses and individuals on both sides of the aisle in a broad range of complex commercial litigation matters. When cases are referred to alternative dispute resolution, Paul’s training as an attorney-mediator offers special value in the process.
Paul is also an experienced appellate advocate, having briefed and argued many appeals before Texas state and federal appellate courts.